Yes, you’re right Ian. I remember reading that he probably would not make those trips. I forgot about that. Of course after the last two springs we are going to be over-analyzing everything regarding Utley!

The only thing perennially worse than Phila general managers, and coaches are the stereotypical phila fan. The only city that breeds infighting because of a difference of opinion.

They say this city has fandom of that on par with soccer hooligans. ken bland, and chuck a posts attest to this thuggery.

If you dont agree with people who dont share your opinion or fanaticism; its ok. this is America, people can have a difference of opinion, even about a Philadelphia sports team. Stop feeding the stereotype.

By the way, in order to inject some objectivity to my above comments; there are other posters on here who disagree with me and do it respectfully, so yeah, its just you.

Chuck A; I refuse to call you what I so badly want to, but do you live in a vacuum?
Have you not witnessed the regression offensively of this #1 offense for the last 3 seasons?
when I see the same batting approach in spring 2013, yeah, Im concerned. When I see the correlation between the phils regular and post season success with the lack of hits/hr which Amaro still refuses to address with the acquisition of Revere, Young, and Young; yeah, Im concerned. But enough speculation, everyone on this site knows were I stand. Its my opinion. Hope Im wrong, but i doubt it.

On the other hand, aside from your knack for snide remarks; what evidence do you have to back your position; if you have any other than pure fanaticism?

fool 1 |foōl|
noun
a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person : what a fool(ken bland) I am to have faith in a team whose general manager ruined the next 10 years in order to assemble the best pitching staff with no offense.

Fool 2 What a fool(ken bland) I am to seriously think a team can win when the general manager in essence is now doing his best to manage his mistakes of the last few years and assemble a team who cant even hit spring training pitching

Hey, I didnt get a poloroid of your face when the Giants and Cards upet the Phils in 2010-2011. Could you please send me one this fall when the phils get eliminated in the regular season?

Im worrying about utley … We heard bullshit for awhile last year also and we all know what the outcome was… Yesterday he didn’t play at all either, they said it was because the field was wet….. It didn’t look bad to me…. Seems with that statement that he maybe hurt.

Come on guys if you are going to worry about the fossils and thier health you will be all greybeards trying to pick up hotties.

You will be drinking a half gallon of grey goose every day like myself and Brooks.

In race horsing terms Utley is former Kentucky derby winner running in a $3,000 claimer at a cheap track.
You feel bad for the former champion toiling away. All broken down and sore. A shell of his former self.

I know by ken bland and chuck a’s logic this means nothing but, the phils have the fewest runs and hits of any NL team so far in spring training. As a matter of fact, they have the fewest hits in all of major league baseball.

I heard it best explained the other day – regarding Paps and probably most of the seasoned veterans on the club – The 9th inning is about adrenalin. To pitch in the middle of a game, a spring training game means absolutely nothing.
Just warm ups.
Chill boys, chill..

lol, Its amazing how easy it is to fleece philly fans. Sports execs know and love this. Philly is a cash cow. The people here want so bad to believe they bite at everything. I dont make these observations as a recent transplant or outsider; I was born and raised here. I love my city, but the philly ethos is very cliquish/provincial, and irritates me to no end sometimes. You cannot be a decenter to popular opinion without being labeled a heretic.

Andy Reid ruined the eagles prospects of gaining a top tier qb for god knows how long.

Amaro has ruined the chance of the phils gaining a top tier hitter at least through 2014, for which after that date it wont matter because our pitching staff will be reduced to Hamels and John Lennon, I mean Lannon.

Tim Hudson probably won’t make it into Cooperstown… but having had the privilege to watch him pitch, I’d say he’s damn good. His adjusted ERA is going to be better than a lot of pitchers already in Cooperstown (I’d say he’s as deserving as Jim Bunning, as well as some others).

I’m definitely going to give Dom Brown a shot in round 12-15 assuming he’ll be there. I’ll shy away from Howard, not because I don’t agree with the link, but because there will be too many other good choices. I’m thinking someone like Paul Goldschmidt might be a good play.

P.S. Some of the comments below the article are a hoot. Well worth the time.

Brown is currently owned in only 5% of yahoo leagues.
Id say you either draft him in the very last round or you can get him as a free agent. Unless of course your league is phillie fans and yuo really want him. He is otherwise not a hot fantasy commodity.

Regarding me taking a flyer on Howard.

Ill take a firstbaseman very early. A Votto Fielder type of stud.
In my league I have 2 utility positions and I always try to stick first baseman in those 2 slots.
As a 2nd or 3rd 1B used in the utility spot taken in round 8.
There is real value there.

I am sure after saying this out loud though some goober will take him in round 4 making it all moot now.

The problem with first baseman is that there are very few first tier first basemen who are “no doubt about it” guys. I’d say three… maybe four. There are a lot of next tier 1B with upside but they aren’t sure thing guys. So after those three first tier guys, you’re gambling and as an absolute rule, I don’t gamble with my first two picks. So I say, if you don’t get Votto or Pujols or Prince, you might as well wait because the value of the next 15 guys on the board is going to be relatively close and you can let everyone else get in and out of that pool and stilll walk away with decent value. I’d say wait on the first baseman and fill other positions that don’t have as much depth – 3B, 2B, SS… you won’t find good options at those positions in the later rounds.

I’m in a Keeper league, so the Vottos, Fielders, etc. are not available. I have to make a value pick at 1b. Last year I got Billy Butler and Alan Craig who both played well and I may go that direction again. We keep 9, so there are 16 rounds in the draft. That’s why I said 12-15. Don’t want to wait until last round in case a a heavy Phils fan is involved, but I will let Dom slide as long as I can. I’ll consider Howard, but it’s not likely.
I think Brown could be a real value pick.

Not only do these games not count, but they are nearly meaningless in what they tell us about how good the team will be. The most important thing they tell us is whether players are healthy, and all the news in that department “so far” is good.

Wait, are you saying we shouldn’t get all worked up about the Royals being 4-0 while the Rangers and Angels are 0-4 or that the Marlins are playing .750 ball after everyone wrote them off after their fire sale?

People that get worked up over Spring Training stats and outcomes are the same people that are getting worked up over the fact that Chase Utley didn’t make the trip to Ft. Myers today…after management MADE IT CLEAR that he wouldn’t travel far away from Clearwater this spring.

OCP- I think the Yankees may have a real problem. I’m not basing that on ST numbers, I just think they lost too much, and now the Granderson injury. Could be a tough year for baseball in the big apple.

Many of the self righteous philly/taliabn fanatic fans on this site live in a vacuum. Are spring training games determinate of a good club? no, are they meaningless? no. If they were there would not be a spring training. If anything it gives management and players a chance to work on routines, practice, and weaknesses in the course of a 9 inning game.

My critisim is not so much of ST performance, rather the offensive moves Amaro made that have not enhanced this club in any way. These low scoring games will not so much be the outcome of player performance whether meaningless or meaningful to the regular season, but more of the lack of personnel, similar to what the Yanks will face without Granderson. Thanks to the person who pointed that out for the regular rockheads.

Rule 1
If you comment on someone elses vocaulary or spelling ( particularily on a site without a spell check). You lose. Just ask Don M. Wheeler.

Arc I tend to agree with alot of your points.

I felt helpless alot of times here the last few years.
I wanted so badly for Rollins to jsut be allowed to walk away.
But it didnt happen.
I saw for years the impending doom that RAJ was doing to this line up.
I also think that the damage he is doing may take a decade to fix.

But
The guys who post here are good guys who love the Phillies just like we do.
They just get emotionaly attached to the players.
The problem is RAJ is as bad as a poster on a blog.

Wait till the reg season when the real trolls come out.

Lets have some fun. Most the guys your posting to deserve some respect even if they are wrong alot of times.

AfW is right in that this is a place for civilized commentary on the Phils. AfW and you are not alone in your anti-RAJ position on this site. However, you will get much more respect if you come on here with substantive reasons why RAJ’s tenure has been / will be a disaster (e.g. overpaying in $ and/or years on the majority of the free agent contracts he signed, squandering 1st round picks and misusing Dom Brown) rather than claiming the sky is falling based on the fact that the Phils were the NL team with the fewest RS in Spring Training after 3 games (especially when many of the other NL teams had played 4 or even 5 games).